Stephen Fry on board Qantas flight forced to land after engine problems

TV presenter and British national treasure
Stephen Fry endured a scary moment on a Qantas Airbus A380 flight between Singapore and London after it was forced into an unscheduled landing in Duabi because of midair engine problems.

The stricken Qantas Airbus A380 developed an engine problem and landed in Dubai (Picture: EPA)

The QI host was returning to the UK after touring Australia with his award-winning BBC comedy quiz show, and was one of more than 250 passengers affected.

Flight QF31 was forced to land in the United Arab Emirates after travelling for more than two-and-a-half hours with one of its four engines out of service.

The pilot was forced to cut one of the engines after oil problems caused it to malfunction just a quarter of the way into the ten-hour trip.

Shortly after landing, Fry tweeted his news but seemed nonplussed by the potentially scary episode.

‘Bugger. Forced to land in Dubai,’ he wrote. ‘An engine has decided not to play.’

No passengers were hurt, but all were substantially delayed.

A spokesperson for Qantas said the airline was arranging alternative onward travel to London and Fry, it seems, has now managed to rearrange his trip to be back England this weekend.

Stranded: Stephen Fry (Picture: PA)

‘This plane, the crew tell me, is going nowhere,’ he continued.

‘It looks as tho someone’s wonderfully finagled a seat on an Emirates flight direct to London this afternoon. Should only (be) 16 hours late.’

Referring to the other problems experienced by Qantas this week, when it was forced to ground its entire fleet for two days over an ongoing dispute with its workers’ unions, Fry added: ‘Either way not a great week for £qantas!’

The incident’s timing is particularly poignant, as it comes exactly a year after the engine of another Qantas A380 blew up over Singapore. The spokesman said this was ‘a coincidence’.